Pygmalion (Theatre) - TV Tropes WMG Pygmalion (full title: Pygmalion: A Romance in Five Acts) is a 1913 play by George Bernard Shaw . We open on a crowd sheltering from the rain in a church porch. Among them are an impoverished aristocratic mother and daughter, the Eynsford-Hills (who dispatch Freddy, the son of the house, to secure them a cab); Colonel Pickering, a student of Indian dialects; and Professor Henry Higgins, a professional linguist. These are joined by Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower-girl (nearly knocked over by the departing Freddy), whom Higgins repeatedly startles, first by taking down her speech in phonetic writing, then by declaring to Pickering (whom he has invited to his home) that he could teach her to speak proper English, and finally by presenting her with a great deal of money — which she uses to commandeer the taxi which the feckless Freddy has brought for his already departed family. Eliza, inspired by Higgins' boast, comes to his house for lessons.

Pickering makes a wager with Higgins, that the latter must in six months' time pass Eliza off as an aristocrat at an Embassy Ball. To effect this, Higgins bullies and wheedles Eliza into remaining at his home. Eliza's dustman father, Alfred Doolittle, gets wind of this and comes to extort money out of Higgins — which Higgins, delighted by Doolittle's charmingly amoral manner, gladly gives him. Eliza's lessons duly proceed. Sometime later, Higgins brings Eliza to his mother's At Home day to try her out on Society; Mrs. Higgins' guests just happen to be the Eynsford-Hills. Eliza's conversation, though conducted in a properly aristocratic accent, is thoroughly low-class in grammar and content. Hilarity Ensues , as Eliza departs with a shocking vulgarism, leaving Freddy frankly in love with her and his sister determined to emulate Eliza's elegant "small talk." Higgins' mother remonstrates with him, to no avail.

Months later at the ball, Higgins and Pickering present Eliza to the scrutiny of the venal language expert, Nepomuck, who has been charged by the hostess with detecting any social frauds. Because of his language expertise, Pickering is certain that Eliza will be seen right through. Nepomuck thoroughly deceives himself, however, identifying Eliza not only as an aristocrat, but as a foreigner as well; even when Higgins himself identifies her as a Cockney commoner, his Cassandra Truth is not believed. With the ball over — What now? Eliza's new character has unfitted her to be a flower-girl, and left her financially unable to maintain her character as a lady. The rest you'll have to see yourself. (And even that might not answer your questions, so you may have to read the " Afterward " Shaw appended to the play after he first wrote it.) A well-received film version was shot in 1938, directed by Anthony Asquith and starring Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller. Shaw adapted his own play and won Oscar for his script.

Pygmalion: A Romance in Five Acts - Bernard Shaw - Google Books Pygmalion: A Romance in Five Acts 0 Reviews My Fair Lady has been a favorite movie for generations. The story of Eliza and Henry Higgins was first told in Shaw's book Pygmalion. George Bernard was born in Dublin in 1856. Before becoming a playwright he wrote music and literary criticism. Shaw used his writing to attack social problems such as education, marriage, religion, government, health care, and class privilege. Shaw was particularly conscious of the exploitation of the working class. Shaw was the only person to win a Nobel Prize in Literature and an Oscar for the play Pygmalion. The word Pygmalion refers to in ancient Greek mythology where a sculptor fell in love with his statue. In Pygmalion Professor Henry Higgins, a speech teacher, transforms a Cockney flower girl into an elegant woman with regal bearing. As in all good stories Eliza and Henry eventually work through their differences and fall in love. What people are saying - Write a review We haven't found any reviews in the usual places.

About the author (2009) Renowned literary genius George Bernard Shaw was born on July 26, 1856 in Dublin, Ireland. He later moved to London and educated himself at the British Museum while several of his novels were published in small socialist magazines. Shaw later became a music critic for the Star and for the World. He was a drama critic for the Saturday Review and later began to have some of his early plays produced. Shaw wrote the plays Man and Superman, Major Barbara, and Pygmalion, which was later adapted as My Fair Lady in both the musical and film form. He also transformed his works into screenplays for Saint Joan, How He Lied to Her Husband, Arms and the Man, Pygmalion, and Major Barbara. Shaw won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925. George Bernard Shaw died on November 2, 1950 at Ayot St. Lawrence, Hertfordshire, England. Pygmalion : a romance in five acts (Book, 1975) [WorldCat.org] My fair lady.

Responsibility: George Bernard Shaw ; and My fair lady, a musical play in two acts based on Shaw's Pygmalion. Adaptation and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, music by Frederick Loewe. Abstract: Contains Pygmalion, a romance in five acts by George Bernard Shaw and My fair Lady, a musical play in two acts. Reviews Add a review and share your thoughts with other readers. Be the first. Add a review and share your thoughts with other readers. Be the first. Tags Add tags for "Pygmalion : a romance in five acts". Be the first. Similar Items 1000+ images about Pygmalion: A Romance in Five Acts on Pinterest | ESL, Plays and Cgi Pinterest • The world’s catalog of ideas Pygmalion: A Romance in Five Acts by George Bernard Shaw Pygmalion Essay Questions | GradeSaver Pygmalion Essay Questions Buy Study Guide 1 How does the play deal with the issue of social class? Does Shaw ultimately uphold it or not--is there enough evidence in the play to demonstrate Shaw's point of view?

Consider Pickering, for example, who is very much a product of the British hierarchy, and who is one of the most sympathetic characters. 2 Does the play suggest that true love is possible and good? On the basis of evidence in the text, what are the feelings that Liza has for Higgins and Freddy, and why does Liza marry Freddy? 3 Does language itself have transformative power, or does its power come entirely through the people who use it? In what sense is Eliza a new person after she learns to speak differently? 4 The subtitle of the play is "A Romance in Five Acts." Discuss the ways that the play is a romance--or might it more properly be called a tragedy or a comedy? 5 Is Freddy the perfect match for Eliza? If the story is a romance, is Freddy or Higgins a romantic hero? 6 How does the knowledge that Shaw was a socialist color one's reading of this play? Consider, for instance, Doolittle's speech on the undeserving poor. Does Shaw sympathize with this "class" of people, or should we view his presentation of each character uniquely? 7 How does the movement from the public space of Covent Garden to the private spaces of Wimpole Street and Mrs.

Higgins's home affect the behavior of the characters? What is the safest space for Eliza? 8 How does the audience appreciate dramatic irony in the play? For instance, What does it mean when Clara swears using the term "bloody"? 9 Shaw gives one of the reasons that a marriage between Eliza and Higgins would never work out as that Eliza would have been unable to come between Higgins and his mother, suggesting that such a dynamic is necessary in marriage. Given the events of the last act, does this reason seem accurate? 10 How does the quotation from Nietzsche that Shaw quotes at the end of the play, "when you go to women, take your whip with you," relate to Eliza's relationship with Higgins? With Pickering? With Freddy? George Bernard Shaw - Pygmalion - First Edition - Signed | Bauman Rare Books George Bernard SHAW Item#: 101552 We're sorry, this item has been sold EXCEPTIONALLY RARE ROUGH PROOF (UNPUBLISHED) COPY OF PYGMALION, INSCRIBED BY SHAW TO HIS CLOSE FRIEND AND COLLEAGUE, ACCLAIMED BRITISH PLAYWRIGHT ALFRED SUTRO SHAW, George Bernard.

Pygmalion: A Play in Five Acts: By a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. London: Constable, 1913. 12mo, full burgundy morocco gilt rebacked, marbled endpapers; original blue paper wrappers bound in; pp. (4), 82. Housed in a custom cloth clamshell box. Rare rough proof (unpublished) copy, signed and inscribed on the half title by Shaw to his close friend, the famous British playwright Alfred Sutro: "To Alfred Sutro from G. Bernard Shaw, 5th Dec. 1913," handsomely bound by Zaehnsdorf. Pygmalion, Shaw's most popular play, is universally considered his comedic masterpiece. Following his success with Androcles and the Lion, "Shaw turned to the Greek romance of Pygmalion and Galatea. His Pygmalion, written from March to June 1912, was performed in German in Vienna in October 1913 as translated by Siegfried Trebitsch, whose inadequate redactions were endured by Shaw complainingly but loyally all his life.

The London opening occurred in April 1914, Shaw waiting for Mrs Patrick Campbell to become available despite her rebuff the year before, and the uncertainty that at forty-eight she could suggest a girl of eighteen. English audiences, however, preferred star quality to verisimilitude. Although Shaw claimed that he had written a didactic play about phonetics, and its anti-heroic protagonist, Henry Higgins, is indeed a speech professional, what playgoers saw was a high comedy about love and class, about a cockney flower-girl from Covent Garden educated to pass as a lady, and the repercussions of the experiment. Possibly Shaw's comedic masterpiece, the film adaptation (1938) earned him an Academy award for his screenplay, and further worldwide success was won by the Alan Jay Lerner–Frederick Loewe musical adaptation, My Fair Lady (1956)" (DNB). This is a rough proof, otherwise known as a printer's proof, which was not formally "published." Rough proofs were made by hand without the use of special proof paper, positioning, or makeready and used for checking purposes, prior to the publication of the formal first edition.

As rough proofs were fully legible and not aesthetically unpleasing, Shaw was often inclined to keep them and give them as gifts to his closest friends. Shaw rough proofs are rare and are mainly found in institutions such as Brown's Sidney P. Albert-Bernard Shaw Collection. This copy is inscribed to famous English playwright Alfred Sutro. While Sutro began his career in the wholesale business, his wife Esther would only agree to marry him if he took up one of the arts. Sutro was a fan of the theater and so decided to become a playwright. The couple moved to Paris and "enrolled in the Théâtre de L'Oeuvre, a society dedicated to the production of fine plays, where they befriended Maeterlinck and Henrik Ibsen. Sutro became instrumental in bringing the Théâtre to London, where its members performed Maeterlinck's Pelléas et Mélisande in 1895 with sets painted by the French impressionist Édouard Vuillard. It was received with acclaim by the critics William Archer and George Bernard Shaw" (DNB).

While the couple was closest friends with Maeterlinck, their frequent participation in salons also resulted in friendships with Hardy, Yeats, Meredith, Maugham, Verlaine, Symons, and various other famous members of the literati. They were generally well-liked and Alfred Sutro even attempted collaboration with several members of his exclusive groups. The couple also became avid collectors of the Impressionists, bolstering their status among the entire arts community. Sutro's "main success came in 1904 with The Walls of Jericho, a dark comedy about a disillusioned millionaire and his heartless, aristocratic wife. Thenceforth Sutro was accounted one of the leading English dramatists, no year being complete for theatregoers without a new play from his pen—sometimes more than one. The best-known of these are Mollentrave on Women (1905), The Fascinating Mr Vanderveldt (1906), John Glayde's Honour and The Desperate Duke (both 1907), The Perplexed Husband (1911), and The Marriage will not Take Place (1917).

During this time he also helped found The Dramatists' Club with Shaw and became a patron of the young D. H. Lawrence. One of the first things he did with his royalties was to send 100 guineas to poor parishes in the East End of London. Meanwhile Esther had become a fashionable painter, securing the patronage of Henry James and publishing a study of Nicolas Poussin" (DNB). While Sutro was eclipsed slightly during the post-war years, his final play received positive reviews and he remains a well-known 20th-century dramatist. This is a particularly interesting copy due to the friendship between Sutro and Shaw and their constantly intersecting lives. They were contemporary playwrights; playwright and critic; and close friends. In Sutro's The Open Door, Shaw is used in a line of dialogue when it is suggested that one character might have the Devil's sense of humor: "Perhaps he has read Bernard Shaw." The two were often compared and referred to each other in speeches, such as one by Shaw at the Whitefriars Club where Sutro was Friar, in which Shaw spoke about the necessity of an endowed theater for both himself and Sutro.

Indeed, throughout their careers, the two were never far apart. Thus, this copy is most desirable. Photographic portrait of George Bernard Shaw originally attached under inscription but now laid in. A very nearly fine copy. ask an Expert shipping & guarantee If you are interested in an item from one of our catalogues or our website and would like more information before ordering it, please give us a call; one of our salespeople will be happy to speak with you and answer any questions that you might have. For some items, we can also email digital photographs. All of our items are guaranteed as described and are shipped on approval. We accept MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Discover, checks and wire transfer. For first-time buyers, we prefer a credit card and we will only ship to the billing address on the card. We do ask that if you are not satisfied with the item, you contact us by phone as quickly as possible and return the item within ten days. We ship worldwide and all packages will be sent via UPS or Federal Express unless another carrier is requested. Next-day or second-day air service is available upon request. Shipping and insurance charges are additional.

Author's full list of books SHAW, George Bernard > Aquatint Copperplate process by which the plate is “bitten” by exposure to acid. By changing the areas of the plate that are exposed and the length of time the plate is submerged in the acid bath, the engraver can obtain fine and varying shades of gray that closely resemble watercolor washes. Although the name contains the word “tint”, this is a black-and-white printing process; aquatint plates can often be hand colored, however. Armorial Used to describe a binding bearing the coat of arms of the original owner, or with bookplates incorporating the owner’s arms. Association Copy copy that belonged to someone connected with the author or the contents of a book. Boards Hard front and rear covers of a bound book which are covered in cloth, leather or paper. “Original boards” refers to cardboard-like front and back boards, from about 1700 to 1840, used as temporary protection for books before their purchasers would have them bound. Of particular value to collectors as evidence of a very early form of the book. Book-Plate Label, generally affixed to the front pastedown, identifying a book’s owner.

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Occasionally the text of a book will be put into a specialized book press and painted, often with a scene from the book or a landscape, so that the painting is invisible when the book is closed but visible when somebody bends the text and fans the pages—known as a fore-edge painting. Foxing Light brown spots that naturally appear on some papers due to oxidation as they age. Frontispiece An illustration facing the title page of a book. Gathering Single sheet of paper that has been printed and folded to form the pages required by the book’s format. A single gathering of a quarto book, then, would be a sheet folded twice, containing four leaves, eight pages of text.. Gatherings are identified by a letter, symbol or number in the lower margin of the first page (the “signature”) to make it easy for the printer to stack them in proper order for sewing. Gilt Edges The three exposed edges of a book have been smoothed and gilded. Half Title Leaf preceding the title page that bears the book’s title, originally used to identify the unbound text block. The book’s binder would often remove and discard the half title at the time of binding. Remaining half-titles are therefore of interest to collectors.

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It does not require the same sort of pressure as an engraving to transfer the image, but still has to be printed on separate stock from the text Marginalia Handwritten notes made in the margins by a previous owner. Mispaginated Printer’s error in pagination, typically skipping, transposing or repeating page numbers. Not uncommon in older, larger books, it is not considered a defect, so long as all integral leaves are present. Modern Recently accomplished, when used to describe a book’s binding that is not the original casing. Some books bound recently are bound using techniques, tools and styles of the period of the book’s original issue; when done well this is called a period-style binding, a term that implies “modern” as well. Morocco Binding material made from goatskin—versatile, durable, with a distinctive pebbled texture and visible grain. Readily stretched (“straight-grain”), crushed (flattened smooth), tooled in gilt or blind, inlaid with leathers of different colors. So-called because much of the raw material originally came from the tanneries of North Africa (other types of goatskin bindings denoting regions of origin include levant, turkey, niger).

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The back side is known as the “verso.” Trade Edition Printing or printings of a book made available for purchase by the general public on publication day (as opposed to a limited edition, often available only by subscription). Uncut When the edges of the text block (most apparent at the fore and lower edges) have not been trimmed to a uniform size, and are therefore characterized by a ragged or deckle edge. A book may be uncut but opened—i.e., with a paper-knife—but all unopened books (see below) are by nature uncut as well. Unopened When the folds of the sheets of paper making up the text block have not been trimmed away or opened with a paper-knife. While this makes it impossible to read all of the pages, it also indicates a probability that the text block has not been altered since leaving the printer. Vellum Binding material made from specially treated calfskin—durable, with a distinctive ivory color and smooth appearance. Can be tooled in gilt or blind. So-called Japan vellum (or Japon) is a type of thick paper that has been polished smooth and given a glossy finish to resemble vellum.

Verso The back or reverse side of a leaf or page. (See “recto.”) Woodcut Illustration or textual decoration made by cutting away from the surface of a block of wood until the reverse of the image is left in relief; this is then inked and pressed to the paper to leave the image. The woodblock, or multiple blocks, can be fit into the page along with the type, allowing text and illustrations to be printed in the same print run and share the same page (not possible with engravings, which require thicker, damp paper and much more force; nor with lithographs, which require a different printing process altogether). Woodcuts preceded moveable type and are the earliest known printing technology. Wood-Engraving Engraving made with the graver or burin on the cross-section of a piece of boxwood; the harder wood and finer tools allow for more delicate, finely detailed images, while the block can still be set in the page alongside text and printed on the same stock as the text. While much older, wood engravings enjoyed an important renaissance in the late eighteenth century through Thomas Bewick and continued in popularity thorugh the nineteenth century.

Wormhole Tiny pinhole-sized trails left by bookworms as they eat through a text block. Much more common in older books printed on handmade papers with a high rag content than in books printed on manufactured papers made from wood pulp with a higher acidic content. Wrappers Paper coverings—plain, marbled or printed—attached by stitches, staples or glue to a text block to identify it and afford it some protection (though much more fragile than a binding in plain, cloth or leather-covered boards). More typical of slim and/or inexpensive volumes such as pamphlets. “Self wrappers” are leaves, blank or printed, that are integral to the text block, conjugate with other leaves and from the same stock. “Original wrappers,” those attached at the time of issue, are scarce and extremely desirable to most collectors. Receive Electronic Catalogues CiNii Books - Pygmalion : a romance in five acts Pygmalion : a romance in five acts . and My fair lady : based on Shaw's Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw .

adaptation and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner ; music by Frederick Loewe （Signet classics, CE2476） Signet Classic, 1980 Other Title George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and the internationally acclaimed Alan Jay Lerner musical adaption, My fair lady : now together in one special edition Pygmalion ; My fair lady My fair lady : a musical play in two acts : based on Shaw's Pygmalion Available at / 3 libraries Pygmalion Act V Summary and Analysis | GradeSaver Buy Study Guide Mrs. Higgins is in her drawing room when her parlor-maid enters and informs her that Pickering and Higgins are downstairs calling the police. Mrs. Higgins sends the parlor-maid upstairs to inform Eliza that the men are here and that she should not come until she is called. Higgins enters and explains that he is frantic that Eliza has left-he cannot find anything and now has nobody to remind him of his appointments. Mrs. Higgins scolds her son for calling the police as if Eliza were a lost parcel. The parlor-maid announces Mr. Doolittle , who enters in a fancy waistcoat.

Doolittle claims that Higgins has ruined his happiness. Higgins says that this is impossible because he only gave him a small amount of money, and because he has had only two conversations with him since the first one. Doolittle explains that Higgins wrote a letter to a man named Ezra D. Wannafeller saying that Doolittle was the most original moralist in England, and the man died and left his millions to Doolittle-partially to show that the Americans do not regard class in the same way that the English do. Doolittle says that he is miserable after being made a gentleman: everybody asks him for money, and he does not have the nerve to forsake his new wealth and station. Mrs. Higgins says that at least he now can provide for his daughter. Higgins objects to this idea, saying that he bought her for five pounds. Mrs. Higgins reveals that Eliza is upstairs, having come upset very early in the morning. Mrs. Higgins censures them for not admiring Eliza or telling her she did a good job. When Eliza comes down, she looks self-possessed and very much at home. She uses the genteel accents that Higgins has taught her.

Higgins is furious and claims that he has made her what she is. Pickering assures Eliza that he does not think of her as just an experiment, and she expresses her gratitude to him for everything, especially for teaching manners to her. She adds pointedly says that Higgins could not have taught her such manners. Eliza says that the difference between a lady and a flower-girl is not in anything that she does but in how she is treated. Pickering always treated her like a lady, whereas Higgins has treated her like dirt. Higgins claims in response that he treats everyone like dirt. Doolittle tells his daughter that he is marrying her mother. Doolittle is nervous, and he asks Pickering to come to help see him through the wedding. Mrs. Higgins decides to go as well, leaving Higgins and Eliza alone. Eliza says that she will not come back because Higgins only wants her to pick up his slippers and the like. Higgins says that he cannot change his own manners, but at least he is democratic: again, he says he treats everyone as if they were of the lower class. Eliza says that she shall not be passed over and that she can do without Higgins.

Higgins says that he needs to determine if he can do without her, since he has grown accustomed to having her around. Eliza claims that he should not have taught her anything because it only leads to trouble, but Higgins claims that all creation leads to trouble. Eliza says that she is holding out for something more, adding that Freddy is infatuated with her and writes her letters every day. She says that she participated in the experiment because she had come to care for Higgins, and all she wanted was a little kindness. She had not forgotten the social and economic gaps between them. Higgins idealizes the lower-class life, saying that you work until you are inhuman, then you squabble or make love or drink until you fall asleep. He also says that Eliza needs too much attention. She says that to assert her independence she will marry Freddy or become a teacher of phonetics. He finds her spirit to be attractive and says that she is no longer a woman but a tower of strength. He suggests that she live with him and Colonel Pickering, the three of them together as bachelors. Mrs. Higgins returns dressed for the wedding, and she takes Eliza with her.

Higgins asks her to run his errands for him, including one to buy some cheese and ham. She says a final goodbye to him, and he seems confident that she will follow his command. The onstage drama ends, and Shaw adds, in an epilogue, that Eliza recognizes Higgins as predestined to be a bachelor-and that she marries Freddy instead. (This was somewhat of a scandal, but the fact that Eliza's father had become a social success made it less hard on the Eynsford Hills.) With a gift from Colonel Pickering, Eliza opens up a flower shop. The only person truly bothered by this state of affairs is Clara , who figures that the marriage will not help her own marriage prospects. But Clara began to read H.G. Wells and travel in the circles of his fans, and she decides to begin working in a furniture shop herself in the hopes that she might meet Wells (because the woman who owns the shop is also a fan of his). Freddy is not very practical, and he and Eliza have to take classes in bookkeeping to make their business a success. But they do make it a success, and they live a fairly comfortable life.

Analysis The mythological themes that give the title to this play are at their strongest in this act. The audience learns conclusively that Higgins truly views himself as Eliza's creator. Shaw sets up a strange, almost Freudian symmetry between Higgins and his mother on the one hand and Eliza and her father on the other. Higgins gives one of his reasons for never marrying as his too great respect for his mother. Her love of beauty, art, and philosophy has led her son to value Milton's poetry and his own universal alphabet more highly than he could a relationship with a woman. From Eliza's perspective, Higgins seems too much like her father in that neither of them really need her. Eliza genuinely cares about Higgins and is stung by the idea that he needs her no more than he needs his slippers. This represents the same sort of nonchalance with which Doolittle sells his only daughter in Act II for a five-pound note. Paternal relations and romantic relations, should be stronger than this. But Higgins's respect for his mother seems to interfere with his own life. Shaw's description of the final state of affairs shows an interesting perspective on love.

Freddy was infatuated with Eliza and remains so, but it is unclear what her feelings are towards him. She certainly likes him, but she continues to feel the most passionately (mostly in anger) about Higgins. She wishes that she could get him on a "desert island" just to see him make love like any other man-but this remains a private fantasy which Shaw dismisses as ultimately unimportant. The social mores of the characters tend to favor balanced and practical love over passionate, romantic love. Despite the fact that Shaw moved away from Ireland at a young age, he is a quintessentially Irish writer. (See, for instance, John Bull's Other Island Show.) Read in the light of the imperial relationship between England and Ireland, Eliza's final declaration of independence might have a political connotation, especially since language and location have been intertwined from the beginning. The fact that the English forced their language on the Gaelic-speaking Irish, after invading Ireland, has particular bearing on this play, where we witness a male forcibly teaching a female to speak.

(One might consider the possibility of similar themes of colonization and intrusion that involve reshaping language in Shakespeare's (otherwise very different play) The Tempest and, much later, Beckett's Endgame.) Like Shakespeare's Caliban, Eliza may see a significant benefit of her newly-acquired language as the ability to curse her "master" with fluency. And Ireland (like many countries) is feminized in the Irish popular imagination, represented by female names like Erin and "Kathleen Ni Houlihan," while in colonial narratives the conqueror is usually portrayed as male. Pygmalion was produced only four years before the 1916 Easter Uprising, and Eliza's demand for self-determination, after rising into her own social maturity, may reflect the Irish nationalist cause. Pygmalion : George Bernard Shaw : 9780140437898 George Bernard Shaw Plays, Playscripts Review Text Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion was originally published in 1912 and was first produced the following year.

Shaw's reputation as a serious dramatist was already well established, with plays reflecting his political ideologies (Mrs Warren's Profession, Man and Superman, Major Barbara and so on) playing to packed houses. Pygmalion, however, was to be his comic tour de force, displaying the satirical wit of his earlier plays, leavened with a healthy dose of broad humour at the expense of his pompous anti-hero, Henry Higgins. Shaw himself was scathing about its success, and had he lived to see the hugely successful musical version, My Fair Lady, he would have been aghast at the overtly sentimental treatment of what he regarded to be a serious examination of the vagaries of the English class system. Shaw took the name of the play from Ovid's tale of the sculptor Pygmalion who falls in love with his beautiful creation, Galatea. Venus answers his prayers, Galatea comes to life and they marry. Such a conventional happy ending is denied Higgins when he exercises his phonetic talents on the Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle and transforms her into a society lady.

Like the Ovidian Pygmalion, Higgins actually has little time for women - all women that is, except for his mother. He still behaves like a little boy in her presence, thus distancing himself from any possible romantic attachment to Eliza, even though her fondness for young Freddy arouses unexpected feelings of irritation and jealousy. He seems unaware of the impropriety of keeping a young girl in his house, and laughs at Pickering's suggestion that he might be attracted to Eliza : 'I've taught scores of American millionairesses how to speak English: the best looking women in the world. I'm seasoned. They might as well be blocks of wood. I might as well be a block of wood...'. Despite being nearly a century old, Pygmalion is as fresh and vital today, its comic brilliance undimmed by the passage of time. Issues of class are still relevant, and the broader themes of the need for love and personal freedom are as important now as they were in 1912. Nicholas Grene's introduction to this latest edition is brief yet full of insight, and will prove invaluable to those reading the play for the first time.

Bernard Shaw may have considered Pygmalion a potboiler but its popularity is guaranteed for many years to come. (Kirkus UK) show more Follow us

Question: The full title of which play by George Bernard Shaw is completed by 'A Romance In Five Acts'?
Answer: 'PYGMALION'